Bananas Beach Bar and Guesthouse — Restaurant in Isla de Vieques

I have been on TripAdvisor for nearly a decade. This is one of a very few "mixed" reviews I have given. I do not do all inclusives or Disney cruises. My needs are pretty simple. My experience here was a real "make do" situation. |The guesthouse is behind Bananas, a really fun restaurant with amazing food. The restaurant is across the street from the beach. Esperanza is very laid back with a hippy vibe, so all you need is shorts and flip flops.|We looked forward to spending a week there. Inquired about availability. Was told we could choose between two rooms. Booking with them is not easy. They keep abbreviated office hours and have various staff answering e-mails and have bartenders telling you to call back "after 4" to book..? So, of course, in all this confusion. they booked a couple of people for one night stays(!) on the second day of our trip. You have to take a ferry to Vieques to be there, so it's not like you can just "go away" for one night and return. So, anyway, we adjusted our entire trip to THAT glitch, which was a bummer. When my husband commented on this upon our arrival, he was rudely told that we could go somewhere else if we wanted(!) Yeah, after an hour cab ride, and hour waiting for a ferry a hour or so ON the ferry, we were not in a position to just piss off, so we stayed. |If you can handle camping, you should be ok with their basic and somewhat grubby rooms. I booked this in defiance of one reviewer that seemed a bit "prissy" in her expectations. Hey, it's the Caribbean! Well, our room was in the back building (rooms 9-12). It did not have an enclosed seating area like other rooms AND it did not have a door that fully closed. (This would be an easy fix, btw). Anyway, it was full of mosquitos and lizards. The lizards were cute and probably helped eat bugs. But, c'mon! I did not enjoy applying DEET directly after each shower because someone was too lazy to install $4 worth of weather stripping. |I am ONLY giving this place an average because the...

I have been on TripAdvisor for nearly a decade. This is one of a very few "mixed" reviews I have given. I do not do all inclusives or Disney cruises. My needs are pretty simple. My experience here was a real "make do" situation. |The guesthouse is behind Bananas, a really fun restaurant with amazing food. The restaurant is across the street from the beach. Esperanza is very laid back with a hippy vibe, so all you need is shorts and flip flops.|We looked forward to spending a week there. Inquired about availability. Was told we could choose between two rooms. Booking with them is not easy. They keep abbreviated office hours and have various staff answering e-mails and have bartenders telling you to call back "after 4" to book..? So, of course, in all this confusion. they booked a couple of people for one night stays(!) on the second day of our trip. You have to take a ferry to Vieques to be there, so it's not like you can just "go away" for one night and return. So, anyway, we adjusted our entire trip to THAT glitch, which was a bummer. When my husband commented on this upon our arrival, he was rudely told that we could go somewhere else if we wanted(!) Yeah, after an hour cab ride, and hour waiting for a ferry a hour or so ON the ferry, we were not in a position to just piss off, so we stayed. |If you can handle camping, you should be ok with their basic and somewhat grubby rooms. I booked this in defiance of one reviewer that seemed a bit "prissy" in her expectations. Hey, it's the Caribbean! Well, our room was in the back building (rooms 9-12). It did not have an enclosed seating area like other rooms AND it did not have a door that fully closed. (This would be an easy fix, btw). Anyway, it was full of mosquitos and lizards. The lizards were cute and probably helped eat bugs. But, c'mon! I did not enjoy applying DEET directly after each shower because someone was too lazy to install $4 worth of weather stripping. |I am ONLY giving this place an average because the...

⭐ Bananas Beach Bar – Esperanza, Vieques ⭐

If you’re chasing the classic “cold drink, warm breeze, sunset over turquoise water” combo, Bananas nails it.

What we loved • Perfect sunset perch. The two-story yellow building sits right on the Malecón, so every table—downstairs or on the rooftop deck—faces the water. We watched pelicans dive-bombing for fish while wild horses clip-clopped past the sidewalk. • Island-comfort food that over-delivers. • Fish Tacos: light batter, fresh catch, bright mango salsa—ordered one, immediately ordered another. • Slider Trio: mahi, snapper & tuna minis with lime aioli—ideal for sharing. • Seafood Mofongo: garlicky plantain bowl loaded with shrimp, snapper and mussels; big enough for two. • Sides like sweet-plantain amarillos and crispy fries were actually hot and well-seasoned (rare for a beach bar). • Signature drinks. A Painkiller here tastes like vacation in a glass—just the right balance of dark rum, pineapple, coconut and nutmeg. Frozen piña coladas are thick without being syrupy. • Family-friendly vibe. High chairs, forgiving volume level, room for a stroller, and servers who happily split plates for our toddler. • Live music without the chaos. A guitarist played mellow reggae classics around 8 p.m.—enough atmosphere to linger, still easy to hold a conversation.

Tiny tips • Happy hour (4 – 6 p.m.) drops cocktail prices and wings to 50 ¢—worth timing your visit. • Kitchen can run 20 – 25 minutes at peak dinner rush; order a starter and enjoy the view. • Bring cash for tips—card machine occasionally sputters when the Wi-Fi hiccups.

Bottom line Bananas isn’t just “good for a beach bar”—it’s genuinely tasty food, strong but balanced drinks, and a front-row seat to the best sunset on Vieques. Five stars from our crew; we’d come back for the tacos and that Painkiller any night...